Brooklyn Wichmann, “Ottoman and European Women’s
Fashion Exchange in the 19th Century”
HIST 4405-Modern Middle East
Idaho State University
19th century European and Ottoman women's fashion.
The
clothing a person wears is often judged by others and gives a first impression.
With this in mind, clothing based on ethnicity and religious practice is often
judged by those on the “outside” as exotic, peculiar, or even monumental. This
occurs by both sides of the judgement. The Ottomans and Europe had been trade
partners for centuries by the time of the Ottoman’s dissolution; and with trade
of material goods comes cultural exchange. A particular aspect of cultural
exchange that is often overlooked is the exchange of fashion. European women
became fascinated with the Ottoman Empire’s dress as early as the sixteenth century.
The fascination continued into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this
essay Ottoman and Western women’s fashion during the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries and the cultural influence on one another will be examined.
European
interest in Ottoman women’s clothing was a topic beginning with first contact.
Historian Kass McGann states that the height of the fashion for the Ottomans
was the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and that this was the Golden Age
of the empire and a great time for women in general.[1] McGann’s Ottoman Turkish Women’s Getting Dressed
Guide discusses the distinction between what clothing was for Ottoman women
and what has now become costume.[2] Her guide lists what was
worn by the women and in what order each piece was worn. As stated this essay highlights the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries but as Historian Jennifer Scarce points out “Women’s
fashion did not remain static but continued to evolve at a steady pace . . .[and]
changes are seen more in subtlety of detail rather than in drastic innovation
of shape and cut.”[3]
The primary pieces of clothing for Ottomans were the undershirt (gömlek), underpants
(cakşir), trousers (şalvar), coat (kaftan), vest (yelek), interior garment (entari),
and a long loose robe (ferace).[4] The importance of these
garments was that they were simple in construction; all created using
rectangles, triangles, or squares. There was little to no contours that
revealed the shape of the body.[5]
Scarce discusses that while the normal
garments of the Ottomans consisted of simple shapes, there are surviving
garments from the 1870s that show darts inserted in the waist of the entari to create the fashionable European shape.
In addition, this particular garment had a sloping shoulder seam not seen
before, and a cut out armhole. These elements come together to form a more
modern westernized dress that clung to the body.[6] Scarce illustrates that
the fashion of Ottoman women naturally developed through the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, but in the nineteenth century the European influence was starting
to take shape. She continues that the European influence accelerated the pace
of change and by the early twentieth century upper class circles had adopted
the “smart European dress.”[7] In contrast to Ottoman
women, European women’s layers were more conforming to the body. A European
woman’s dressing guide lists the following components for women’s dress:
chemise, drawers, corset, corset cover, petticoat, understructure, petticoats,
bodice, and overskirt.[8] As indicated already, Ottoman
women had fewer layers that were far less constricting. The less restrictive
qualities of Ottoman clothing could indicate why exoticism developed in Europe.
Examining portraits of Ottoman
and European women, helps discern the appeal of each regional style. These portraits
of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (left) and Abdullah Freres (right) show the
quintessential fashions of both cultures.[9] These women were chosen
because their clothing represents the epitome of late nineteenth and early
twentieth-century fashion for their regions and cultures. Tsarina Alexandra is
a well-known woman which illustrates European women participated in the public
sphere displaying themselves through fashion. The unknown Ottoman woman illustrates
that while the photographer may know who she is, society was not allowed to
know who she was because women were supposed to remain hidden. The secrecy is
evident in the clothing which covers the entire body.
Alexandra’s dress bodice is
fitted to the waist with a fuller skirt, which was the style of the late nineteenth
century. The gown Tsarina Alexandra wears is also formal court attire for
Russia, which adds to the luxury that Europe portrayed to Ottoman women.[11] The unnamed Turkish woman
wears a traditional costume of the Ottoman Empire. Since she is outside her home
she is wearing the ferace, or oversized covering that was required by Islam. We
don’t see what is underneath but the ferace itself illustrates tight-fitting
garments were not the norm for the Ottoman Empire. Historian Julia Clancy-Smith
discusses the image Ottoman women instilled in the minds of the West. The
paintings and photographs of the nineteenth century portray women, Clancy-Smith
argues, as exotic beauties hidden away.[12] As shown, the woman does
appear hidden away through the veil and folds of fabric.
On the other hand, Alexandra is
not hidden away. She exudes the imperialism of the West and the fashion of the
times. Historian Onur Inal states that “European dress represented the
extrovert character of British women by revealing more of the contours of the
body than did the dress of Ottoman women.”[13] The statement reveals
appeal of western dress to the Ottomans. It took a strong extrovert woman to
wear a low cut, tight fitting bodice; and it took an even stronger woman to
carry it well. This is not to say that the Ottoman woman were not strong, quite
the contrary. The Ottoman women’s clothing were dictated by “sumptuary
regulations based on Islamic Law and social norms, but susceptible to change.”[14] By rejecting the clothing
society dictates to them was a direct rejection of cultural norms. In summary,
the appeal of each style to its counter-partner was that it was different. It
was a rejection of the clothing society dictated to them. In essence, it was a
way for women to rebel.
Historian Einav Rabinovitch-Fox
states: “the Oriental style marked a move from the S-shaped, frail look that
dominated the Victorian period, towards a straighter, more comfortable, simpler
style that promoted a more sensual ideal of female beauty.”[15] She continues that women’s
rights activists were seeking a new look for women in the nineteenth century
that would convey their ideals. She illustrates this point by discussing that
these activists found that the Middle East was equated with feminine and the West
masculine. By utilizing the fashionable Turkish trousers (şalvars) they could achieve their goals. The Turkish trousers were believed
to be part of this new look for activists because it gave them comfort and
movement but would still be regarded as feminine when using the west’s equation
of middle east equals feminine. They would then not be portrayed as trying to
be masculine and rebellious but instead embracing their sex and femininity.[16] Fox illustrates a
monumental influence the Ottomans had on Western dress. The influence continues
through important artists such as Paul Poiret and Leon Bakst.
Historian Christine Ruane
discusses in detail the Ottoman influence on Leon Bakst in The Empire’s New Clothes. Leon Bakst was a Russian designer for the
Ballet Russes during the late nineteenth century. Ruane states that he took
trips to the Middle East to influence his designs. She continues that the
hearts of Parisian audiences were stolen with the “Oriental” costume designs.
She believes this to be another example of the West’s obsession with the East
and its “binary oppositions – masculine/feminine, civilized/barbaric,
familiar/exotic, rational/erotic...”[17] These “Oriental” ballets
had a dual purpose, Ruane claims; to entertain and to act as intermediary
between east and west, because Russia was both Asian and European.[18] The importance of Ottoman
influence on Bakst is observed by British photographer Cecil Beaton, as he
states it was “a fashion world that had been dominated by corsets, lace,
feathers, and pastel shades soon found itself in a city that overnight had
become a seraglio of vivid colours, harem skirts, beads, fringes, and voluptuousness.”[19]
Like Bakst, Paul Poiret was
another European designer that took heavy influence from Ottoman women.
Historian James Laver contends that Poiret used the wave of orientalism to
establish a new modern women. Laver describes the scene as a sweeping away of
mauves’, corsets, bell skirts and structure. In its place, Turkish trousers and
draping gowns became the new norm for elite women.[20] Onur claims: “It is
remarkable that at the same time when şalvar and entari became a fashion of
high society in Britain, it was simultaneously replaced by European dress among
the elite women in the Ottoman Empire.”[21] There is minimal
scholarship on who designed what for the Ottoman women, but as Onur points out
that foreign tailors and dressmakers took up residence in Istanbul to
capitalize on their new audiences.[22] This was not only for the
women of the empire but during the early nineteenth century Sultan Muhmud II
embarked on reform for modernization that included clothing changes.[23]
Historian Serap Kavas discusses
that twentieth-century Turkish Republican elites saw their style of dress as
backward and wished to revive it according to modern fashion. He states that
his study “investigates the crucial role of physical appearance in the path
towards the development of the country.”[24] This modernization
included banning the fez and veiling.[25] It is evident from
Abdullah Freres’s photograph in the late nineteenth century that veiling
continued. Onur also points out that Mahmud II’s reforms did not have any
significant impact on women’s clothing.[26] Kavas counters Onur by
stating that while there was no legislation dictating dress for women, the
women still flocked to adopt western attire. He states this occurred first with
the palace elite. There was even talk of adopting the corset, which was an
unfamiliar item for the Ottomans. An article printed in an Ottoman newspaper
stated: “Given how women dress in the civilized world, we will come to realize
that the corset has become an essential component of a dress.”[27] The shift from
traditional to western attire is evident in the following two photographs of
Ottoman garments.
Westernization did take hold in the Ottoman Empire through
clothing. The difference between men and women’s fashion is that women adopted
by choice. As mentioned previously, aside from the veil no edicts were passed
explicitly stating what women should wear, but there were edicts on men’s dress.
In this
essay Ottoman and Western women’s fashion during the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries and the cultural influence on one another have been
examined. There are contradictions in the scholarship on women’s clothing in
the Ottoman Empire. These contradictions include that some believed Ottoman
women to fully retain their traditional clothing, while others state they
quickly abandoned their clothing for European fashions. Written scholarship
conflicts on the evolution of garments ,but extant garments similar to those
from the Sadberk Hanim Museum in Istanbul are definite. Within elite Ottoman
society more traditional garments were influenced by western commodities. The same
is true for the West. Extant garments from designers like Paul Poiret
illustrate the influence of the Ottoman women in Europe. There were some women
who wore these designs but as Onur points out they were often reserved for
fancy balls and masquerades.[29] Ottoman women in contrast
fully embraced the western attire for their everyday attire. The influence was
uneven between east and west, and illustrate that Europeans sought to dominate
those whom they deemed culturally inferior to them.
Bibliography
Boasson, Frederick and Fritz Eggler, photographers. [Empress
Alexandra Feodorovna,
Autographed Photograph], [1908]
Image. Retrieved from RomanovRussia.com,
http://romanovrussia.com/antique/signature-autograph-photograph-empress-alexandra
feodorovna/. (Accessed April
05, 2016).
Inal, Onur. "Women's Fashions in Transition: Ottoman Borderlands
and the Anglo-Ottoman
Exchange of Costumes." Journal
Of World History 22, no. 2 (June 2011): 243-272.
Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost
(accessed February 25, 2016).
Kavas, Serap. "‘Wardrobe Modernity’: Western Attire as
a Tool of Modernization in Turkey."
Middle Eastern Studies 51,
no. 4 (July 2015): 515-539. Academic Search Complete,
EBSCOhost (accessed
March 10, 2016).
Laver, James. Costume
and Fashion: A Concise History. 5th ed. London: Thames and
Hudson
ltd., 2012.
McGann, Kass. Getting
Dressed Guide for Ottoman Turkish Women 1520-1683. Reconstructing
History, LLC, 2014. Kindle.
Rabinovitch-Fox, Einav. "[RE]FASHIONING THE NEW WOMAN:
Women's Dress, the
Oriental Style, and the
Construction of American Feminist Imagery in the 1910s."
Journal Of Women's History 27,
no. 2 (Summer2015 2015): 14-36. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost
(accessed March 10, 2016).
Ruane, Christine. The
Empire’s New Clothes. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2009.
Sadberk Hanim Museum, Ottoman Women’s Costumes, Acessed
March 15, 2016.
http://www.sadberkhanimmuzesi.org.tr/default.asp?page=basinodasi&b=gorselarsiv&hl
en.
Scarce, Jennifer. Women’s
Costume of the Near and Middle East. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Kindle.
[1]
Kass McGann, Ottoman Turkish Women’s
Getting Dressed Guide: 1520-1683 (Reconstructing History LLC, 2014),
Kindle, loc 111.
[2]Ibid.,
loc68.
[3]Jennifer
Scarce, Women’s Costume of the Near and
Middle East (New York: Routledge, 2003), Kindle, loc 1263.
[4]McGann,
loc 136-208.
[5]Scarce,
1698.
[6]Scarce,
loc 1793.
[7]Ibid.,
1558.
[8]A.
Bender, “Late 19th & Early 20th Century: The parts of
a lady’s outfit in putting-on order,” La
Couturiere Parisienne, copyright 1997-2012, http://www.marquise.de/en/1800/glossar.shtml . The chemise was
similar to the gömlek in
that it was usually a simple undershirt; the drawers are similar to the cakşir and were
underpants; the corset sculpted the body to the proper shape of the decade; the
corset over was usually embroidered or had lace that would show above the
bodice; the first petticoat was closer cut to make sure nothing was exposed if
the wind kicked up skirts; the understructure could have been a bustle,
crinoline, but wasn’t present in the 20th century; more petticoats
were added to smooth the shape and add fullness to the skirt; and finally a
separate bodice and skirt were put on over top the layers.
[9]
Abdullah Frères, photographer. [Turkish Woman, Full Length
Portrait, Seated, Facing Front, Holding Parasol and Flowers],
[Between and 1900, 1880] Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
https://www.loc.gov/item/2003677089. (Accessed April 04, 2016.)
[10]
Frederick Boasson and Fritz Eggler, photographers. [Empress Alexandra
Feodorovna, Autographed Photograph], [1908] Image, retrieved from
RomanovRussia.com, http://romanovrussia.com/antique/signature-autograph-photograph-empress-alexandra-feodorovna/,
(accessed April 05, 2016).
[11]Ruane,
64.
[12]Ibid.,
138-140.
[13]Onur
Inal, "Women's Fashions in Transition: Ottoman Borderlands and the
Anglo-Ottoman
Exchange of Costumes," Journal Of World
History 22, no. 2 (June 2011), Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost
(accessed February 25, 2016), 257.
[14]Ibid.,
263.
[15]
Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, "[RE]FASHIONING THE NEW WOMAN: Women's Dress, the Oriental
Style, and the Construction of American Feminist Imagery in the 1910s," Journal
Of Women's History 27, no. 2 (Summer2015 2015): 14-36. Academic Search
Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 10, 2016), 15.
[16]Ibid.,
17.
[17]Ruane,
176.
[18]Ibid.,
177.
[19]Ibid.,
178.
[20]
James Laver, Costume and Fashion: A
Concise History. 5th ed. (London: Thames and Hudson
ltd., 2012), 224.
[21]
Onur, 270.
[22]Ibid.,
268.
[23]Ibid.,
262.
[24]
Serap Kavas, 516.
[25]Ibid
[26]Onur,
262.
[27]Kavas,
523-524.
[28] Sadberk Hanim Museum, Ottoman Women’s
Costumes, Acessed March 15, 2016.
http://www.sadberkhanimmuzesi.org.tr/default.asp?page=basinodasi&b=gorselarsiv&hl
en.
